A while back I found two of these tubes (yellow and orange) thrown willy-nilly in the bottom toy bin at the dollar store. Knowing our Miss Lizzie’s affinity with tubes of all shapes and sizes and anything textured, I bought them both. She loved them immensely. They stretched out really far and made a wonderful noise when she used them like an accordion, in and out along her mid-line. Awesome! Unfortunately, Lizzie loved them so much that they got very bent out of shape and didn’t quite work anymore. She still loves them, but I was aching to get her some new ones. Since then I have scoured every dollar store I could think of looking for these things to no avail.

Today, I was on a quest to pick up some ice cream, and on the request for a certain ice cream topping not carried at our Walgreen’s (where I was picking up Miss Lizzie’s meds), I ventured across the street to Jewel. My son had to be with me on my ice cream run, and of course this meant a visit to the TY Beanie Babies in the toy aisle. As I was trying to rush my son from the store (I already had the ice cream in my cart), I came across Jewel’s dollar toys. I was looking at the shelves, thinking about two “Birthday Bags of Fun” I have to make in July, and a random thought popped into my head. What if they had those tubes. And lo and behold on a lower shelf there was a half-full box, and another half-full behind it. I actually got teary when I saw them. I bought two in each color, and will probably go back for more! I also made note of the name and manufacturer of our wonderful tubes, because the dollar store hadn’t had a box and by the time I had realized Lizzie loved them she’d gummed up the bar codes past reading or smart phone scanning.

Michael was disappointed that Lizzie got toys and he didn’t, but I had to remind him of all the times he got candy or snacks or other toys in the store, and Lizzie didn’t, because let’s face it, there are not a lot of grab and go toys for kids like Lizzie. And there are no edible treats in the store for kids with g-tubes.

Lizzie loved her tubes, by the way. I told her I got her something at the store and pulled out a blue one (her favorite color) and I stretched it out so she could hear and see the brightness of it, then scrunched it, and hid it in my hands. She stared at my hands intently, and reached out slowly with both hands. I laid it across her hands, and she grabbed it, stretched it out and rolled it around in the air. She bent it in two, and kissed it! That was one happy girl, well worth a few almost tears in the Jewel toy aisle.